Stickers on urinals all over Belgium where President Bush was today for a third day are inviting people to relieve themselves on likenesses of the President himself, and the American flag.

The stickers distributed by the Belgian Socialist Party (search) can be found in the bathrooms of schools, youth clubs, and pubs, and even in the office restrooms of Belgium's Vice Prime Minister, Johan Vande Lanotte. After all, the man who designed the stickers is one of Vande Lanotte's spokesmen. The leader of the Socialist Party was asked about them on Belgian television but, as The Weekley Standard points out, he refused to condemn them, only saying they weren't his idea.

Meanwhile, here's how one reporter at President Bush's press conference with EU leaders today summed it all up in his notebook  "The same old Bush Junior."

I don't think the actions I listed in my 2nd sentence were just lip service.

Add that he has done more to tear down the phony wall of "separation between church & state" than any Prez in recent history. And instructed John Ashcroft to make the gov't official position on the 2nd Amendment to clearly state that it is an individual right.

The Belgians need to recognize that they are really French (with all negatives that that entails).

You would get your entrails handed to you so fast in Flanders....

Belgium is two different countries forced together by the very bizarre power politics of Europe. The southern half is French speaking, the Waloons. The nothern half is Flemish speaking (think Dutch/German), which is Flanders.

All Belgians are required to learn both languages fluently in school, along with English. The Waloons forever after refuse to admit that they speak Flemish and the Flemish refuse to admit any knowledge of French. Therefore almost all business is done in English. This leads to a lot of resentment against anyone who actually speaks English.

Belgium is the best revenge on the Belgians. Even the Belgians know this to be true. My father in law and mother in law live in her home town in Flanders.

In compensation they have the finest chocolate anywhere and they have more different beers than any other country in the world. Each town has one or two local brews that they've perfected over hundreds of years, most of them excellent. Brussels beer, however, is flat and very yucky. Which is, of course, fitting.

25
posted on 02/23/2005 6:30:10 PM PST
by Phsstpok
("When you don't know where you are, but you don't care, you're not lost, you're exploring.")

This is no surprise. Belgium (like Luxembourg) is France's little sister. Belgium is probably the most corrupt country in Europe. Joseph Conrad called Brussels a Whited Sepulcher in "Heart of Darkness."

I do not think the 2nd amendment is a new priveledge for me or you, unless you consider 1789 to be new. But the feds, under a multitude of Presidents have left it purposely vague whether it was an individual or a militia right. Bush has cleared the air, and I am grateful. It was a ballsy thing to do, and one of the first things he did in office. Do you not recall the gnashing an wailing from the press and the left?

Yes, Yes, maybe I was being a bit reactionary, but a UN sub sub panel in concordance with the IPCC agree, that a drastic reduction in Brussel Sprout production would in fact delay the catastrophic onset of global warming by several decades.

Belgium is a construct of European power politics dating back to the Napoleonic wars. If the Flemish were to break away there is a deep seated fear that those wars would reoccur.

The national emblem of the Flemish used to be the Stars and Bars

So you can imagine their attitude to the subject.

My mother in law was 16 when the Nazi's came in and occupied her 16th century Flemish town. She tells stories about saving up her sugar ration to dump it into the gas tanks of German vehicles.

She used to be worried because the Germans were overdue for invading Belgium. She's now figured out that the EU is the way they (and the French) are invading this time. Her only hope is that the cretinous Belgian bureaucrats will screw up the EU as badly as they've screwed up Belgium, the whole thing will fall apart and they can go back to governing the town and the immediate surrounding countryside and be left alone.

35
posted on 02/23/2005 7:03:31 PM PST
by Phsstpok
("When you don't know where you are, but you don't care, you're not lost, you're exploring.")

Now - Now, you cannot discuss that with representatives of the "International Panel for Climate Change". You are hereby directed to the IPVR - "The International Panel for Voyeur Rights". I am sure one of their 4,000 sub-panels can address your issue.

Disclaimer:
Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual
posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its
management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the
exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.